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Well, what do you know, folks, Samsung can actually deliver on its promises on time every now and then. Thus, after the Android 4.1 updating for the Galaxy S3 took much longer than expected (or is still yet to go live in some cases), the bump to the next software level might just go according to plan.

The bad news – we’re not talking about a leap to Android 4.2, which is still months down the road. The good news – we are talking about 4.1.2, the obvious next best thing and one solid upgrade with loads of new features and enhancements.

According to Sam Mobile, the 4.1.2 upgrade for the S3 will be a fractionate one (quelle surprise), so, while some users will get to taste the new treats this year, many will have to wait until January or February of 2013.

The first country on the list is Poland, but even there only owners of unbranded S3s can grab the firmware through Samsung’s Kies software or OTA (over-the-air). Fortunately, many other countries are potentially next in line, so if you’re residing in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Singapore or Spain (to only name a few), be prepared – especially if you’ve got an unlocked S3.

Now, for the “what to wait for” part of the report. Hmm, we don’t even know where to begin – that’s how many cool new features and tweaks will be in this thing. Multi-View (aka Multi-Window) is definitely on top of many wishlists, but the New Gallery App or the Smart Rotation could be equally as exciting.

Other more basic changes will add some customizable features to the notification panel and will bring apps like Paper Artist or Group Cast. Last, but not least, there’ll be the customary bug fixes (though there are really not that many glitches to start with), but also an “improved stability” and enhanced performance all-around.

Definitely not the most critical software update of all time, but clearly something to look for, don’t you think? Unfortunately, this puts S3s still on Android 4.0 two if not three steps behind software-wise and that’s not very cool, is it?